Eriksson shuns the limelight

Former England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson is fed up with being labelled a failure, according to Uefa president and fellow Swede Lennart Johansson.

Johansson says Eriksson pulled out of being a guest speaker at the Fifa international football convention in Berlin because of the criticism he received following England’s World Cup elimination.

“Sven has had enough. He thinks people have been saying what a shit he is and how incompetent he is, and that just because England have now won a match people are now saying how bad he was.” said Johansson.

“Just because England have now won a match, people say how bad he was.”

Eriksson’s spell in charge of England ended in July when his side were knocked out of the World Cup at the quarter-final stage by Portugal.

Under Eriksson England were also eliminated at the same stage in The 2002 World Cup and the Euro 2004 finals.

The Swede came in for heavy criticism for his failure to galvanise a highly regarded squad of players into a team that could challenge for honours. The fact that he reputedly earned up to £25 million during his tenure, did little to enhance his managerial reputation.

Eriksson had been invited to be among the VIP speakers at the Fifa conference alongside Italy’s World Cup-winning coach Marcello Lippi and France’s Raymond Domenech.

Johansson added: “He has his money and will still try to have his pride, instead of standing here in Berlin with nobody listening to him because he failed to bring the World Cup to England.”

“I don’t defend him, and there are things he did he should have avoided,” said Johansson. “But I can understand that he had had enough.

“He tried to adapt to the style where you hunt people all through the night but he just had enough.”

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